Love and Lies 2: Kinda a sequal, I guess
by x.Sess.x.Satan.x
Summary: Not sure of the exact plot just yet although I do know a beautiful blonde is involved somewhere down the line. Picks up a week after Love and Lies' shocking ending.
1. After a Funeral

**Author's note: **A follow up to 'Love and Lies'. This is a bit more of a Lister-y fic, inspiration from reddwarfaddict that Lister should be more jealous. I'm also taking a leaf out of her book by just…writing. No stable plotline. I'm just gonna write it and see what happens. Bear with me, this is a new experience for me!  
One more thing: today (10 October 2005) is my one year anniversary on this site! Which is why I thought I'd wait until now to post this story. #awaits cards, presents and a large cake#  
Ciao!

Nicole took off her black hat and smoothed down her black skirt. Rimmer undid his black tie. Gemma hung up her black cardigan. _Funerals, _she thought as she joined them on the sofa, _I could do without them_. Still, it was her one opportunity to say a last goodbye to her sister. Her untimely and horrific death was starting to sink in, and she felt a lot better having gone to the funeral. Rimmer also felt better. He felt closer to Gemma and Nikki now, like they were a proper family, and despite not having known Faiyre all that well, he kept fond memories that would last. Nicole was taking it worst of all. She blindly refused to accept her death for days after it happened. Had it been a more peaceful death she may have coped better, but being blown up in a stolen Starbug isn't everyone's, if anyone's, preferred way to go.  
"Are you OK?" Rimmer asked her softly, in the same way he had asked her just before the funeral, and just after it, and just before they'd stepped back into the room.  
"I'm fine," Nicole said shakily, "Just…tired, I guess."  
Rimmer hugged her closer and kissed her on the forehead, "Are you going to go back to work tomorrow?"  
"I suppose so," she sighed, "I need to get back into a routine."  
After a pause she sighed again and got up to put the kettle on. She leant on the kitchen counter and squinted her eyes closed; sometimes if she made her vision go blank, she could imagine Faiyre was still there with them. But not this time. She turned back to her fiancé and smiled weakly, "Do you think you'll start work this week?"  
"Probably next week."  
"Right."  
After the Red Dwarf Employment Council had heard about Rimmer's tutoring, they had had two options: one was to press charges on the grounds that he was practicing teaching without a license; the other was to train him properly and make him a fully-qualified teacher. They opted for the latter, to Rimmer's great relief and excitement.  
"Do you think you'll end up being my teacher?" Gemma asked. Rimmer and Nicole stared at her; that was the first time she'd spoken since she'd found out about Faiyre's death.  
Rimmer fumbled over the shock, "Er, well, I…we…we'll have to wait and see, won't we?"  
Gemma nodded, and even smiled a little bit.  
"Gem?" Gemma looked up at her mother, "You don't have to go back to school straight away. Not if you don't want to. I can tell the teacher's that you're feeling a bit-"  
"No," Gemma interrupted, not wanting to be reminded that what she felt 'a bit' of was 'suicidally depressive', "I want to go back. I wanna see the girls again."  
Nicole stroked Gemma's hair and kissed her on the forehead, "Whatever you want, sweetheart."

Although Gemma didn't know it, Liz, Bex, Laura and Robyn had all spent the last week feeling like shit, too. Although they certainly hadn't known Faiyre as well as Gemma, being there at the time of her death had made them feel a connection with her. Perhaps a connection they never would have felt if they'd known her. Robyn in particular was decidedly shaken up, having to cope with a death alongside one of her greatest loves being critically ill in hospital. Liz and Bex just forced themselves to cope with it, whilst Laura, in a stark contrast to Robyn, seemed to draw some sort of inspiration from Faiyre's death. Whenever the group had spent time with Gemma, it had been an awkward meeting. It was always more like they were strangers forced to talk about their deepest, darkest secrets, rather than a group of friends who could – but didn't have to – talk about a very publicised event.  
Gemma had privately hated the media attention that Faiyre's death had attracted. True, Faiyre had always wanted to be the centre of attention, but Gemma wanted her to lead a peaceful afterlife…if afterlives existed. She hoped they did. Although with the way everyone kept talking about her, and reliving that horrific day…those horrific twenty seconds…Faiyre would never get the chance to pass from this world to the next. Gemma also didn't like her mum and Rimmer being pestered constantly, asked to give interviews, photo shoots, tell stories about Faiyre…it made her very angry that her family weren't being allowed to move on from this disaster.

"Have you got all your stuff moved over from your quarters?" Nicole asked Rimmer.  
"Nearly," he replied, "Lister said he'd help me move the last few bits."  
"Well, you might as well go and make a start now."  
"There's no rush."  
Nicole sighed and gave him a look.  
"What?" Rimmer asked.  
"Come here a sec," Nicole said, nodding her head to her room. Rimmer got up and joined her at the door.  
Nicole dropped her voice to a whisper, "I'm not good at dropping hints; that was my not-so-subtle way of saying I'd like a private word with Gemma."  
"Oh," Rimmer understood, "So you want me to smeg off?"  
"If you wouldn't mind."  
"'Course not," Rimmer said with a smile. He kissed Nicole on the cheek and Gemma on the top of her head, "See you later."  
Nicole went to the sofa and sat next to her daughter, pulling her into a close hug.  
"What you need to understand," she said, "is that people who have never experienced a sudden death of someone very close can never understand the people who have."  
Gemma looked up at her, "What?"  
"Until people see we've moved on from…well, you know…they'll keep bothering us in an attempt to know what we're going through. But they never will."  
Gemma sniffed, "I know. There's no way they can imagine this feeling. Like there's a stone in the bottom of your stomach, and a weight pushing on the top of your head. And they keep pulling you down. Dragging you towards a…a pit of depression."  
Nicole's eyes misted over; she'd never heard her daughter speak so poetically before. It pained her to know the first time she was doing so was because someone had died. And not just anyone – her daughter. Letting just one tear flow down her cheek, she nodded and hugged Gemma again, "Exactly. So just ignore the people who don't understand."  
Gemma sighed shakily, "I do."  
She bit her lip. 'I try' would have been a more truthful statement.


	2. Laura's Birthday Bash

**Disclaimer: **Don't own anything. Red Dwarf is Grant Naylor's problem, not mine. K?

**Author's note: **HAPPY BIRTHDAY LAURA! Just for you, this chapter is being posted today. I got a HUGE headache trying to finish it, but I'm pleased with it, and I even managed to put in some suspense/intrigue at the end! Go me! Anyways, R&R as always you lovely, LOVELY people!

"Happy birthday, Laura!" six voices screamed as Laura entered the room. She didn't seem surprised. In fact, she seemed rather pissed off.  
"Everything…OK?" Gemma finally asked.  
"No!" Laura said as though it was the most obvious thing in the universe.  
"What's the problem?" asked Bex.  
"My brother's the problem!"  
"Why?" Robyn asked, "What did he do?"  
"Nothing!" Laura screeched.  
The group looked amongst themselves in confusion.  
"Well, if he did nothing," Rimmer said, "Then…what did he…I mean…"  
"He did _nothing_!" Laura continued to rant, "And yet he gets _everything_! It's so unfair!"  
"Laura, forget about it," Liz said, putting an arm around her, "It's your birthday! Enjoy it!"  
Laura sighed, "OK…he got surround sound, y'know!"  
"Shut up!" everyone shouted at once.  
"OK, OK!"  
Laura beckoned to Gemma and she led her over to a corner whilst the others dispersed around the room.  
"What's up?" Gemma said, "And if you're gonna bitch about your brother some more…"  
"No, I'm not, I'm not," Laura interrupted in an urgent whisper, "I just thought I should tell you…I was followed here."  
"What? A stalker?"  
"No. A TV broadcaster."  
Gemma groaned, "Not about-"  
"Yes, about…that."  
Gemma sighed and pounded her fist against the wall, "Why won't they leave us alone?"  
Laura smiled comfortingly and put a hand on her friend's shoulder, "It'll all blow over."  
"When?"  
Laura couldn't answer that. Frankly, no one could. She and Gemma and Rimmer and Nicole…they all knew that it was a case of 'wait-and-see'. It might even be something as awful as _another _horrible accident happening that would detract attention from them. But that was the way the media worked. Gemma hated it.

"Laura?" Robyn called, "Presents?"  
"Ooh, yeah!" Laura replied eagerly and pelted over to them. Gemma followed her a second later after taking a deep breath.  
"Who's this one from?" Laura asked, immediately grabbing the biggest present.  
"Us," said Liz and Bex simultaneously. Laura grinned at them and began tearing off the paper. Gemma smiled whenever Laura looked at her, but went back to staring at the ground and biting her nails whenever she looked away. She could see Rimmer kept glancing at her, but she knew it was futile to hide any of her feelings from him; he'd eke them out of her somehow. She kept thinking about Faiyre…about her mum…about Rimmer…about herself…they would never have normal lives again. And being friends with Laura, Liz, Bex and Robyn was just dragging them into the 'depressive circle', as she called it. She knew she should be grateful that she had such a number of people to rally around her and protect her, but a part of her felt utterly guilty. It was _Gemma_ who had run away. It was _Gemma _who had persuaded Faiyre to go with her. It was _Gemma_ who wasn't moving on.  
"Gem?" Rimmer said, putting a hand on her shoulder. She looked up to see she and Rimmer was alone in the room; she'd become so involved in her own thoughts that she hadn't noticed everyone else go to dinner.  
Gemma mumbled a reply back at her future stepfather, "I'm OK, really."  
"No, Gemma, you're not," Rimmer said softly, "I may not exactly be overly experienced with sympathy, but I want to talk about this."  
"Well I don't!" Gemma said, almost snapping. Rimmer let his hand fall off Gemma's shoulder.  
"Well," he said dejectedly, "If…if you ever do need to talk…"  
"I'll talk when I'm ready," Gemma said angrily, "I don't know why everyone is forcing me to get over my sister's death so quickly!"  
"Gemma…"  
"And what's worse, everyone else _is_ over her death! Why am I being left behind?"  
Rimmer sighed, "You're not, Gem. You're really not."  
Gemma snorted and slumped onto the couch, crossing her arms defiantly. Rimmer sat next to her and wrapped his arm around her, "You're not alone."  
"I know I'm not _alone_. I've got all you guys. And I'm grateful, honestly. I just…I just want to be over this. Once and for all."  
"We all do."  
"You all _are_! That's what I'm saying!"  
Rimmer took a deep breath and decided to tell her. He'd been wanting to for so long. He knew it would be hard to recount, but it would be worth it if it benefited Gemma, "I had a sister who died."  
Gemma looked up at him, "What?"  
"I…I had a sister. She died. It was horrible," he remembered.  
"I thought you only had brothers."  
"I don't talk about Patience much. But she was a good sister. She was lovely to me. Don't remember all that much, of course; she died when I was still very little."  
Gemma could see tears glistening in his eyes, "I had no idea…"  
"Like I said, I don't talk about her much. The general memories I have of siblings aren't very pleasant."  
There was a long pause as Rimmer stared into his lap, his eyes glossy. Gemma could tell she wasn't going to get anything else out of him that evening se she slipped her hand into his.  
"Shall we go to dinner? We don't want to miss the look on Laura's face when she finds out who's there!"  
Rimmer smiled, "Me neither."  
They got up and walked hand-in-hand out of the door.

"Greg!"  
Laura was jumping about screaming this name when Rimmer and Gemma arrived at the restaurant, a slightly perplexed looking boy standing in front of her with a card in his hand.  
"Surprised?" Gemma said from behind her.  
"How could you do this?" Laura screeched turning to face her; Gemma saw for the first time that Laura's screams weren't happy ones as her face was red and tearstained, "You _knew_ I never wanted to see him again!"  
"I…I thought…" Gemma stuttered.  
"Well, _don't_!" Laura yelled, and ran from the room in floods of tears, Robyn following close behind her.  
All eyes turned to Nicole.  
"Well," she said defensively, "_You_all thought it was a good idea, too!"

**A/n: **Confused at that last bit? Don't blame ya! It'll all become clear next time. And no, Laura, I'm not telling you!


	3. ZK

**Author's note: **I'm almost entirely unhappy with this chapter, but I was put under a lot of pressure from certain people #cough# bexZKlaura#cough# so I just posted it anyway. Enjoy!

"Ouch!"  
"Sorry," Laura mumbled an apology to the girl she had just ran into.  
"No problem," the girl said, then muttered, "Next time I'll zombify you…"  
Laura stared at her, "What?"  
"Nothing."  
Laura raised an eyebrow, then continued to walk away.  
"Oh, excuse me?" the girl shouted after her. Laura stopped and turned back round.  
"Yeah?"  
"Don't suppose you know where Arnold Rimmer is, do you?"  
"DON'T say that name in front of me!" Laura squeaked, "He was in on it, too!"  
It was the girl's turn to stare, "What?"  
"Nothing."  
Laura turned away again and made for her quarters.  
The girl also continued on with her journey, bumping into Nicole a few steps later.  
"Is this National Run-Into-Steph Day or something?" she asked to no one in particular.  
"I'm sorry," Nicole said, "I need to catch up with someone."  
"Do you know Arnold Rimmer?" the 'Steph' girl asked, quite unexpectedly.  
"Well…yeah, he's my fiancé."  
"Oh, great! Do you know where he is right now? Right this second?"  
"I can tell you _vaguely_ where he is," Nicole said slowly, not entirely sure how to approach this girl.  
"So where is he?"  
"He should be back at our quarters. Room 474, floor 35."  
"Thanks," she said sweetly, walking away, "Oh, and you can call me ZK."  
Nicole's eyes flickered before nervously saying, "Thank you?"  
ZK smiled, span on her heel and walked off down the corridor. Nicole stood stock-still for a moment, trying to figure out what had just happened, then remembered Laura and dashed off after her.

"Gemma?" Rimmer asked anxiously, "What exactly are you doing?"  
Gemma was piling a lot of the room's furniture up against the door, "Keeping out the reporters!"  
"Yeah…how are we supposed to get in and out?"  
Gemma eyed the blockade, "I didn't think this through…"  
Rimmer rolled his eyes and turned to put the kettle on.  
"Wait, wait, wait," Gemma said quickly, rummaging through the barrier she had created.  
"Oh, you didn't put the _kettle_ in there, did you?" Rimmer asked.  
"No! Well, not all of it…"  
"What do you mean…?"  
"I took the lid off and filled it with grapes."  
Rimmer didn't know whether to laugh or not. She looked so serious.  
"You didn't actually do that, did you?"  
"Yeah!" Gemma replied, like it was obvious, "I was making a heavy object even heavier. Science, y'know."  
"Crazy," Rimmer muttered under his breath.  
"Here," Gemma said, passing him the kettle.  
"So," said Rimmer as he tipped the grapes into the sink, "You gonna stand up to the media?"  
"Uh-huh!" Gemma said proudly.  
"Good for you! I would, but…I'm a coward. I wouldn't be in the least bit effective."  
"Coward?" Gemma said incredulously, "Who saved me from a Starbug that was about to explode?"  
Rimmer turned to face her as the kettle filled, not used to hearing Gemma speak of that incident in a positive light, "Yeah, well. I was acting on adrenaline then. Besides, _no one_ would have just left you in there to be blown to…" He trailed off as he realised that that was exactly what had happened to Faiyre. He cleared his throat and turned back to the kettle which was now spilling over.  
There was a knock on the door.  
"Dammit!" Gemma cursed, eyeing the sofa and table that had to be moved, "Who is it?"  
"ZK," a girl's voice said.  
"Who?"  
"Z. K." the voice said more slowly.  
"Do you know a ZK?" Gemma whispered to Rimmer, who just shrugged and shook his head.  
"Wait, are you a reporter?" she asked angrily.  
"No, I'm a fifteen-year-old girl. I would like to talk to Arnold Rimmer, if he's there."  
"What about?" Rimmer asked.  
"Tuition. I've heard you…you know…do it."  
Rimmer and Gemma exchanged glances, "I'm not a private tutor any more. I work at the school now."  
"I know. But I thought I'd come and see you first."  
"OW!" Gemma dropped a chair on her foot.  
"If you're busy I can come back later," ZK suggested.  
"That'd be good," Gemma said quickly, seeing that Rimmer was about to dismiss it.  
"OK. See you later."  
"New client, huh?" Gemma said when ZK's footsteps had faded away, "You're proving very popular, Dad."  
Rimmer and Gemma both froze; that was the first time Gemma had called him 'Dad'. There was a fairly long silence between them before they looked at each other. They both burst out laughing through their mutual understanding.  
"Should we wait for your mother to come back and help us move this couch?" Rimmer said when they calmed down (though he was still shaking a little).  
"Yeah. Can't remember how I even moved it in the first place!"


	4. First Day of School

**Author's note: **Don't have much to say about this chapter, but anyone who knows me well will understand the list of boys' names :D

Rimmer fidgeted with his tie nervously. It was his first day as a professional teacher. He knew all the girls would be in there, but he didn't know if that was going to give him support, or just make him more nervous.  
"Good morning, class," he said shakily.  
"Good morning, Mr. Rimmer," the class chorused. Rimmer smiled a little; so far, so good. He caught Gemma's eye and she grinned at him. He took a deep, vitalising breath and picked up a piece of chalk.  
"Today," he spoke as he wrote 'Class R' on the blackboard, "We won't be doing any work."  
The class cheered happily.  
"We're going to take out a day of our timetable to get to know each other. So everybody up on their feet and move the tables and chairs to the edge of the room."  
The class proceeded to do so. During the commotion, Gemma managed to snatch a few seconds alone with Rimmer, "You're doing great!"  
"I know!" Rimmer agreed, without modesty, "Look how enthusiastic they all are!"  
Gemma smiled and touched his arm for support before Bex thrust a chair in her hands, "Help us, then!"  
Gemma took the chair to the other side of the room whilst Bex spoke to Rimmer, "Laura isn't here."  
"What?"  
"She hasn't turned up!"  
"Why?"  
"I don't know," Bex thought hard, "Maybe it was because of that Greg guy."  
"Ah…"  
"What's the deal with that?"  
Rimmer sighed and began to explain, "Well, for Laura's birthday, Nicole thought it would be a good idea to invite Laura's ex-boyfriend along."  
"Oh, I see."  
"Bex!" Liz called, "You complain that Gemma isn't helping, then you bunk off yourself!"  
"I'm coming!" Bex called back.

Rimmer sat at his desk whilst the remainder of the chairs and tables were stuffed to the sides in deep contemplation. He hadn't been able to tell Bex the full extent of the situation with Laura and Greg. Now she had completely the wrong idea. _Oh well,_ Rimmer thought, _Maybe later_.  
Seeing the tables and chairs all stacked up, Rimmer called the class into a circle.  
"Now, we're going to go round the circle saying our names and one interesting fact about ourselves. For example, my name is Arnold Rimmer, and this is my first year of teaching. Gemma?"  
Gemma, who was sitting next to him, cleared her throat, "My name is Gemma Adler, and…and…"  
"Your mum is going out with the teacher!" a boy yelled out. His comment was revieved by several cheers and laughs from the majority of the class.  
Rimmer and the girls, however, remained stony-faced.  
"That's enough," Rimmer said sternly, "Perhaps you'd like to tell us your name?"  
The boy who had made the comment stood up, "Certainly. My name is Omigalinini and I'm an alcoholic!"  
Again, the class burst into peals of laughter. Rimmer calmly stood up and fetched his register. He ran his finger down the list of names, calling out any boys' names, "David? Christopher? Jordan? Thomas? Dennis? Patrick? Michael?"  
To each name, the boy replied 'no' until there was only one boy's name left, "Tony, please sit down."  
"'K."  
Tony threw himself to the floor and sat completely still.  
Gemma mouthed the word 'hyperactive' to Rimmer who had to bite his lip to stop from laughing.

"Excuse me," a voice came from the door where a fairly short girl with mousey hair was standing, "I think I'm supposed to be in you're class."  
"Excellent! What is your name?" Rimmer asked.  
"Steph. But everyone calls me ZK."  
"OK, well, you're just in time. Come and join the circle, we're learning everyone's names."  
ZK smiled, put down her bag and sat in the circle.  
Just as Bex was about to give her name, Laura appeared in the doorway.  
"Sorry I'm late, sir," she said monotonously, "I had some problems at home."  
"That's OK, Laura," he said softly, "You're here now. Join the circle with us."  
Laura sat down and rested her head in her hands.  
Rimmer tried to continue with the lesson, but was distracted by Laura's unusually less-than-enthusiastic mood. He set trust exercises to the rest of the class and led her over to a corner.  
"I want to say I'm sorry about Greg."  
"Fine. I accept your apology," Laura said, though her voice was monotonous and she was avoiding his eyes.  
"Laura, I really am-"  
"Whatever!"  
Rimmer was taken aback; he wasn't used to hearing her talk like that.  
"If Gemma and Nicole just…" Laura began, but faltered, "Oh, forget it."  
"No, what?" Rimmer said eagerly, "If Gemma and Nicole what?"  
"If they could just understand! I don't need an apology, I just need them to understand what he did. That would be as good as an apology. Because I know they'd feel as bad as I do."  
"I can talk to them," Rimmer suggested.  
"I thought you'd never say that!" Laura cried, "Praise be to the Lord!"  
Rimmer laughed, "I think Michael over there is without a partner," he said with a smile, "Why don't you go join him?"  
"Yeah, he's cute," Laura said, the sparkle slowly returning to her eyes.  
"When I say 'partner'…"

**A/n: **Any more intrigued, Laura? Heh. Well…I'm STILL not gonna tell ya :P


	5. A Dream's Purpose is to Hurt and Bemuse

**Author's note: **Yup, I'm finally gonna give away some of the storyline to the Laura/Greg relationship. Laura, you can stop bugging me now.  
This chapter brings around the darkness and surrealism that I just thrive upon. Which is why I love the second half of this chapter :D

_"Greg?" Laura screamed, "How could you do this to me? You…you said you loved me."  
__"Suck on it," Greg sneered in reply as the officer dragged him down the corridor, leaving Laura in the arms of a total stranger, an appalling cup of hot chocolate thrust into her hands.  
__"I'm not drinking that," Laura said, still staring after Greg. The medical officer leaned down beside her.  
__"You need your strength for the questioning."  
__"I'm not _going_ to any questioning!"  
__"I'm afraid you don't have a choice-"  
__"I do. For the first time in my life I'm going to make my own choice, and I choose _not _to go to this dumb questioning."  
__"It's required-"  
__"It's NOT! _I_ know he's guilty, _you _know he's guilty, _everybody _knows he's guilty! Save us all the bother and lock him up now!"  
__The medical officer gave a gentle smile that Laura despised, "We have to know exactly what happened."  
__"Fine!" Laura screamed, "Once upon a time, a guy called Greg asked out a girl called Laura with the sole intent of smuggling aboard a mining ship and breaking her heart! No happily ever after, I'm sorry to say, but that IS the fucking end!_

_"The end…_

_"The end…"_

Laura reached over to her bedside table and grabbed a tissue from the box she refilled every evening. She clamped it to her face and wiped away her tears. She sobbed quietly so her brother wouldn't hear from the top bunk. She had flashbacks like that pretty often, so she was used to them happening, but they'd never happened with such intensity or with such detail before. Usually it was just random sentences from the incident interspersed with crazy colours and images. This had been totally different. Vivid and accurate. It scared her.

A few doors away, ZK awoke in the same state; cold, clammy sweat sticking to her body and cold, clammy tears sticking to her face. Her head swirled in the panicky nightmare she'd just had. Usually she loved nightmares; they kept her in touch with what she cared about (death and destruction). But this was closer and far more real. As she sat and thought about it, the memories faded and became less powerful, but the feeling remained. A terrible sense of foreboding. She struggled to remember as the dream pulled away from her mind.  
Professor Rimmer had been there. And his step-daughter, or whoever she was. Gemma. A couple of girls from the class, possibly Bex and Robyn, had been there, too. And she had been there herself, which frightened her the most. On the surface, the dream was simple enough: they all died. But it had been _how _they died that freaked her out. First Bex had had an attack of some sort and collapsed to the ground, followed by a slow, painful-looking death from Robyn. Then, in a totally different area, Rimmer had faded from view until a puff of grey smoke vanished him completely, and Gemma disappeared in a similar fashion, but much more quickly and with a bigger, red puff of smoke that lingered around ZK's eyes and burned.  
Thinking about it, she could still feel the burning sensation now, but she figured it was probably the tears. The dream was too far gone to remember if she herself had died along with them. She hoped she hadn't.  
She didn't fancy dying again.

**A/n: **I've surprised myself with how quickly I've written this chapter. Probably no good. Oh well, R&R as always you gorgeous reviewers!


	6. Belinda

**Author's note: **Yup. Yet another storyline. Enjoy!

Lister awoke with the Mother of all hangovers. Well, maybe not the Mother. Possibly a distant Aunt. Whatever relation it was, it hurt his head. He went out drinking a lot more since Rimmer had moved out. He brought back a lot more women, too. In fact, he did a lot of stuff that he couldn't do before. Only thing was, it wasn't making him nearly as happy as he thought it would.  
At first he thought he was just lonely in general, but he had his mates to hang out with if he ever needed them, and he could always go to a bar and pick up some girl. Then he thought that maybe he was actually missing Rimmer, but that theory had gone out the window pretty quickly. A strange new idea emerged in his head when Rimmer had come by to pick up the last of his things. He'd mentioned something about Nicole and something inside him had jolted horribly; he thought maybe he had developed feelings for Nicole. But he'd only met her a couple of times, and once was at a _funeral – _even Lister wasn't that shallow. So he was back to square one, lying on his bunk, trying to figure out the problem.  
"Lister, D. Report for duty," Holly's monotonous voice echoed through his quarters.  
"You're kidding me!" Lister said to no one in particular, "I only clocked off, like, thirty hours ago!"

"Lister," Hollister said, gesturing to his right, "I'd like you to meet you're new co-worker, Belinda Aberforth."  
Lister saw his new co-worker, Belinda Aberforth, and his jaw dropped to the floor. A buxom blonde who looked every bit as alluring in her khaki tech uniform as she would in a glittering ball gown. She had shadowy eyes and a rose leaf complexion, and when she smiled, Lister felt his heart melt.  
"Hi," she said in a gorgeous husky voice. Lister opened his mouth but nothing came out except a small squeak.  
"I trust you'll take good care of her as her superior," Hollister said with a smile.  
"Y…yeah. I can't wait to get over her!"  
Belinda looked shocked. Hollister looked angry.  
"I mean," Lister corrected frantically, "_be_ over her. I mean…er…be her superior. Y'know…at work."  
Belinda laughed a little and Lister relaxed. Hollister still looked a little pissed off at this outburst, "Belinda, you remember your way around from the tour?"  
"Yes, sir."  
"Could you go to vending machine C3 on F deck, please? Lister will meet you there in a moment after I have a quick word with him."  
"Of course, sir," she saluted and bobbed off, Lister becoming almost hypnotised by the way her hips swayed.  
"Lister!" Hollister snapped.  
"I wasn't thinkin' anything, honest!"  
"You'd better not. Ever," Hollister sounded the most threatening Lister had ever heard him be, "I've already lost one technician to a women."  
Lister smirked; it was hard to believe that sentence was referring to Rimmer.  
"I won't let you down, sir," Lister said, saluting.  
Hollister nodded, "I thought I could trust you. Take care of her. She's had a rough time with her ex-husband."  
Lister's heart sank, "She's just been through a divorce?"  
Hollister shook his head, "He died."  
Lister's heart sank further; what kind of chance did he have with a woman whose husband had just died?  
"I hope you're not thinking what I think you're thinking," said Hollister. Lister shook his head vehemently, "Good. Now get to work. Your colleague is waiting for you."  
Lister smiled. He knew Hollister had meant it in a completely different sense, but what if Belinda _was_ waiting for him? Waiting for him to be the comforting soul. The shoulder to cry on. The man who could make all her troubles disappear with just one good kiss…  
He'd never scored with a widow before. It could be an interesting experience.

**A/n: **Sorry, but I hate this chapter. Zip inspiration, but I knew I had to just scale the mental block and get on with it. Next chapter will be better (let's face it, it can't get much worse).


	7. ZK's Appointment and Lister's Attraction

**Author's note: **Wow, do I hate this fic. Hate it. HATE IT!

"Same time next week?"  
ZK hopped down from the table and nodded. She hated her weekly medicals – they were so demeaning. And pointless. Her condition wasn't going to change no matter how much medication she was allocated. She picked up the small tub of pills from the side and looked at them unhappily.  
"How much?"  
The doctor hesitated for a moment, "On the house."  
ZK frowned and dug into her pocket, then dropped ten dollarpounds onto the counter.  
"Keep the change," she mumbled and shuffled out, slamming the door behind her and dropping the pills into the nearest bin. Her premonitions had become stronger and more frequent since she'd been put on those damn pills, so she refused to take them. She'd just tell her mum that the doctor hadn't given her any medication this time.  
She hated premonitions. She had them most nights now, and most of them were ghastly, like the one she had had in the weeks running up to moving to Red Dwarf – she kept seeing herself squeezed into a tiny cardboard box (which she assumed represented the claustrophobia on board) and kicked away from her friends by her mum's boss (easily explainable as that was _exactly _what had happened). But the worst one she'd ever had – and kept having – was the one about those two girls. Bex's death always seemed so…real, which was weird as most of her premonitions were representative in some way rather than true-to-life. She clung on to the hope that Bex's awful death was representative of something else…maybe her pet bunny giving birth or something. Anything.  
"How did it go?" her mum asked as she walked in the door.  
"Fine. I don't have to take those pills any more," ZK replied mock-brightly, though inside she felt terrible.  
"Oh, brilliant! We'll have chicken noodles tonight to celebrate."  
At this, ZK really did brighten up.  
"What time?"  
"Seven-ish?"  
"OK, I'll be out then."  
She ran off to her room and turned on her beloved computer to chat to the friends she'd left back on Pluto. Nothing much had changed with them – if only she could tell them how much she had changed since leaving them…

Lister could barely concentrate on his work. Belinda was being all…womany, and it was driving him insane! Especially the little hair flick she did every now and again.  
"Could you pass me a Fourteen B, Lister?" she asked with her husky voice.  
Lister froze. He could swear he'd had this conversation before.  
"A…a _Fourteen_ B?" he asked, stalling for time as he fumbled through the boxes looking for a Fourteen B.  
_Why do they all look the bloody same?  
_"Hurry, Lister," Belinda said urgently, struggling to stop oxtail soup from spilling all over the floor.  
"Yeah, just a second."  
After looking fruitlessly for a few moments – and cursing Rimmer that he hadn't taught him the difference between Fourteen B and Fourteen F while he'd had the chance – he groaned in frustration. Belinda seemed to be getting aggravated, too.  
"Try looking in the box labelled 'Fourteen B'!" she yelled.  
"Oh, they won't be in there," Lister stated, as though it was obvious.  
"Why the smeg not?"  
"Because I'm an idiot," he muttered, more as a punishment for himself than a reason for Belinda.  
"OK, then just give me any old pipe-cleaner," she said resignedly.  
Lister handed her a Twelve C and leaned on his trolley.

"Ssssooo…" he said, after the ensuing silence had lasted almost five minutes, "How long've you been a technician?"  
"Not long," Belinda replied, flicking back her blond hair, "It's only a stepping stone, really."  
"Oh, right. What do you want to do?"  
"Model."  
"Well, you could make it, believe me!"  
Belinda smiled, "Thanks."  
She got up after finally clearing the nozzle, "All my jobs have been stopcaps, really."  
"Me too," Lister agreed.  
"Office work…" said Belinda.  
"Car-park attendant…" said Lister.  
"Checkout girl…"  
"Mechanic's assistant…"  
"Porn films…"  
"Supermar-…WHAT?"  
"Porn films," Belinda repeated bluntly.  
Lister was speechless; he had to date this woman! He just _had_ to!  
She mistook his silence for disgust, "Well, I had to do _something_! I barely had enough money to buy food, and the agency said I…I had a certain something."  
"Yeah, well, obviously," he said, unable to stop his eyes wandering to her cleavage. Something in his brain suddenly clicked, "Wait a sec…B-Buxom Belinda?"  
"Oh, so you saw my video, then?"  
"Of cour-…no! No, I, er, walked in on my old roommate watching it," he turned away to hide his blush.  
"Who's your old roommate?"  
"Rimmer," Lister said automatically.  
"Rimmer?" she said slowly, "Isn't he that guy who got involved with that Adler family? The daughter died in a crash, or something."  
"Y-yeah," he replied, not entirely comfortable with the change of direction the conversation had taken.  
"Hmm. Well, anyway," she said lazily, checking her clipboard, "What's next? Ah, Green Corridor, machine 134."  
She turned and started to make her way. Lister watched her go, her perfectly shaped hips swinging saucily from side to side, her hair bouncing on her shoulders, her arm tucked gracefully into her side. He smiled dreamily.  
"Come on, Lister!" she called.  
He snapped out of his daze and ran after her, all the while distracted by the gleaming tan on her legs.


End file.
